


If You Could Choose

by firefright



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, jaydick_flashfic: superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 04:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18113492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefright/pseuds/firefright
Summary: Dick asks Jason a very important question.





	If You Could Choose

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is a quick little thing I wrote for the [JayDick Flashfic challenge](https://jaydick-flashfic.tumblr.com/) prompt 'Superpowers'. Hope you all enjoy :D

“Hey, Jay, if you could have a superpower, which one would you choose?”

“The power to shut you up,” Jason answers without looking up, focused on continuing to sew up the rip in his favourite shirt, rather than Dick’s sudden, out of nowhere question. He’d like to say that the tear had come from tangling with some knife-wielding maniac, but in this case, it was his own clumsiness in catching the sleeve against a door handle that had done the damage. “Why?”

“Just wondering,” Dick says, not batting an eyelid at Jason’s by now rote insult. He’s laid across the couch behind him, open magazine resting against the thighs of his bent legs, while one hand has slipped over to lazily play with Jason’s hair. “Figured you must have thought about it at one point or another.”

He snorts at the implication, “Hasn’t everyone?”

“Duh, that’s why I’m asking.”

Jason rolls his eyes, leaning his head back into the touch for a moment. “Fair enough.”

“So,” Dick presses, refusing to let the matter go, “Which one would you pick?”

Jason sighs. In truth, he’s never really thought about it hard enough to make anything approaching what he’d call a final decision. There were just so many options. Different things that would be useful at different times, depending on the situation. Yet many of them also had their drawbacks, too. He has enough super friends — just barely — to know that.

“You first,” he says, to give himself more time to think and come up with an answer that won’t sound stupid or ill-thought out. “What’s your choice?”

“Flight,” Dick answers easily, and it’s so typically, wonderfully obvious of him that Jason can’t help groaning.

“Of course you’d pick that.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Amusement filters into Dick’s voice, as his nails dig a little deeper into Jason’s scalp, scratching through the thick curls of his hair like he’s a cat.

“Nothing.” he answers instantly, head tipping back further, “That’s not what I meant. It’s just the same one everyone picks, that’s all.”

“Well, maybe everyone picks it for a good reason.” Dick teases, “Who wouldn’t want to be able to fly?”

 _No one_ , Jason thinks shortly. He’s only ever experienced that thrill secondhand himself, held up in the air by either Kori or Bizarro, and it was enough to make him never want to come back down to earth again. To fly free and unfettered, unsupported by others hands or technology… Yes, that was definitely an ability worth having. “Someone’s who’s afraid of heights, maybe.”

Dick snorts behind him. “Always have to be contrary, don’t you?”

“What can I say, it’s my talent.”

“Well, how about you use your ‘talent’ to give me a straight answer of your own, instead.” Dick’s fingers shove his back head forward, causing Jason to almost stab himself with the needle he’s holding. “C’mon, it’s your turn.”

“What are you, twelve? Fine.” Jason rolls his eyes. “I guess…” He looks down at his hands for a moment, now twirling the needle between his fingers. “I guess… invulnerability. Or some shit like that.”

“Invulnerability?”

The sudden shift in Dick’s voice doesn’t go anywhere near unnoticed. Inside his head, Jason curses himself. He knows exactly where Dick’s thoughts have run to, and the worst part of it is, they’re not entirely wrong for doing so.

“Yeah,” he says, casually, trying to play it off, “We get a lot of hard knocks in this job. Lot of hurt. Be nice if that wasn’t something I had to worry about anymore. Then I could just be like Big Blue, running in to do the right thing no matter the situation. No more broken bones, no more stab wounds. Just get right back up and keep on going. No more sexy scars either, though. I guess that would be a downside.”

“I do like your scars.” Dick says, seemingly on reflex. But still, Jason can tell he’s gone a little overboard with his explanation by the way Dick tugs him further back against the sofa. 

Despite his best efforts, he tenses as Dick’s face comes into view. The soft, understanding look in his dark blue eyes is as bad as he expected, and Jason is already starting to think of reasonable excuses for getting out of this situation — and preferably the building — when he continues. “You know, picking flight… it’s not just because I think it’d be fun for me. It’s also because I’d like to never have to worry about falling again, and also…” Jason watches Dick lick his lips, wetting them, “I like to think it’d give me a better chance at catching anyone else when they fall, too.”

That’s so like Dick, he thinks, to reassure him that his embarrassment over his choice is unnecessary by offering up his own deeper explanation for his own decision rather than calling out what’s really behind Jason’s. A way to say, ‘You’re not alone for choosing something to protect yourself. Something that could have saved you from the worst pain you’ve ever felt in your life’, without offending Jason’s sensibilities by sounding pitying or overly sympathetic.

He hates how damn effective it is, and worse, how clearly it demonstrates how well Dick knows him at this point. Plus, he now also has the unenviable challenge of responding himself in a way that won’t sound trite or pathetic. Thereby ensuring Dick won’t end up thinking worse of him anyway.

(He won’t. Jason knows he won’t, but still, his mind is always running on a ticking clock, waiting for whatever this thing is that’s developing between them to come to a sharp and sudden end at any moment.)

“That’s…” he starts, stops. Swallows. “... yeah. Yeah, I understand.”

Better to keep it short, he thinks. It’s the only way to keep his traitorous mouth in check.

Up above him, Dick’s expression has relaxed back into a small smile, and Jason feels his fingers begin to comb through his hair again. It’s sweetly tender, and he can’t stand it even a little bit without needing to distract himself somehow.

“You know,” he clears his throat, “If Bruce heard us having this conversation, he’d knock our heads together.”

“‘Super powers are a crutch’ we don’t need?” Dick’s smile widens.

“That or, ‘There’s no point dwelling on things we can’t change’.” Jason replies, finally echoing that smile back at him. “As if he doesn’t do that every minute of the damn day.”

That wins him a laugh. “I wonder what he’d pick.”

Jason snorts, “You’d have more luck getting blood from a stone than getting him to answer that.”

“True enough, guess I’ll just pass the enquiry on to the rest of our siblings instead.”

Siblings, right. “Pretty sure Cass counts as a superhero already, but sure, you do that.” Closing his eyes, Jason just enjoys the sensation of Dick’s fingers against his scalp for a moment. The comfortable pressure of his nails, and the warmth of his presence behind him now that the change in topic has allowed him to relax again.

Having his hair played has proven to be a real weakness for him, he’s found. Dick knows it, too.

“So hey, is it going to take you much longer to finish that?” 

“Hmm?” Opening his eyes again, Jason looks back at Dick in confusion.

“Fixing the tear in your shirt, dummy.” Dick clarifies, chuckling.

“Oh, uh, no, not long. Why?”

“Because…” The fingers in his scalp dig in a little harder, which simultaneously sends a shiver down Jason’s spine and makes him want to melt. Having his hair played with is a real weakness. “... we still have an hour left till it’s time to patrol, and I thought it might be fun for us to do a little warming up first. You, me. The sparring mats.” His grin turns wicked, making it clear there’s a good chance that sparring’s not all they might get up to if Jason agrees. “What do you say?”

Jason’s throat immediately runs dry, and down below, he feels a hot flicker of _want_ burst into life throughout his stomach.

Suddenly, fixing his shirt doesn’t seem so important anymore.

Slipping the needle back into the safety of the bobbin of thread he’s using, Jason carefully sets the entire assembly aside along with his shirt. “I say… sure, so long as you’re ready to get your ass beat.”

Dick laughs, giving Jason’s hair one last tug before letting go. “For that, little wing, you really might need to develop superpowers.”

“We’ll see, big bird. We’ll see.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://firefrightfic.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/firefright)


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